There are so many amazing options in both high end and mass market for loafers. It was The Duke of Windsor’s favorite shoe, along with JFK’s. Isn’t it funny how there can be so many different versions of the same thing? Just a piece of hardware tucked in there, with a leather sliced on a 1 inch band or 1/2 inch band, it makes the biggest differences.

This selection below, as I’ve purposely left out who the designers are, is a mixture of shoes that go from over 1k to under 1 hundred. But the quality is deceiving, as China is now catching up with Europe’s standards and means of production. They are also delivering at a much faster pace.

In a recent effort to eat healthier, I’ve gone back to some salad options. If you think about Sushi Rolls, any roll can be transformed into a salad. I’m using a soy, lemon, ginger, and sesame oil concoction for a dressing, but any light soy + citrus mixture works. Look it up on Google for more reference. I just posted about salmon skin rolls so the recipe is visually documented there.

Without the rice this salad is simply a ton of Cucumber sliced through a mandolin, watercress, shiso, gobo, and of course, Salmon skin. Blistered to perfection this is literally one of my favorite things.

If you prefer I swear this makes the perfect beer snack. I’m not exactly sure it will work as a superbowl snack or a holiday snack … especially if your guests are used to Doritos and hot wings but it’s insanely delicious.

Serve the dressing on the side, if you mix it with the skin the skin will get all soggy and salmon skin that is soggy is basically inedible.

While your “beauty blogging” experts may be giving you a full roundup of high end designer products that cost you an arm and a leg (for beauty results you’ll never see…) I am going about in my “shrek” like ways.

I already know what these so called “beauty experts” and magazines are slinging. Japanese face masks and more useless things like facial oils by Rodin and Clarins. You must be kidding me with this stuff right? Fellas. If you’re young, work hard to maintain your face with healthy eating and regimented routines..Moisturize, apply sunscreen, exfoliate, and get to sleep early. If you already have wrinkles you want to plump out there’s only one thing you can do and that is called Botox! Everything else is called Bullshit!

The only thing about beauty that you young women need to know is to stop talking about “these products” you need but to start doing it routinely. That I find is the most challenging, to do it every morning and night.

How many boozy nights can you count where you end up in bed with mascara coloring your lids? Or you like, accidentally forgot to take off your foundation with makeup remover.

Or how many nights were you stuck on that phone of yours stalking everyone you know that you don’t follow on instagram instead of getting yourself up from the bed to the sink so you can do your exfoliation and etc?

My new routine right now is this cucumber mask, I grate it, squeeze the juices out (not all of it) and dab it all over my face. I am addicted. Leave on for 30 minutes – an hour. Click your favorite search key on Youtube and you’re set to go. Mine are “JFK DOCUMENTARIES”. Does this make any difference? Yes. I quit smoking and the only other thing I’m going to quit is drinking but I’ve been very good! Drinking once or twice a week.

Other than my cucumber mask, I also do a tight knit regimen involving LUSH PRODUCTS, I’ll go into it later. The thing is I need a minibar (refridgerator) for my Lush goods because believe it or not, they’re best left in colder climates.

Yes, it isn’t necessarily fall outside, yet….but I’m cooling off in my perforated Puma’s and stuff I normally don’t tend to wear. That was because during my years (early to late twenties) I was busying trying to be “cool” wearing Margiela, Jil Sander, C. Kane, etc.

Nowadays “cool” is no longer a priority. There is no blogger or person out in the world who does not know how to look cool. Cool, it’s easy. Being cool, it’s not. That requires practice, performance, swagger, real life that matches what you project as a brand or social person etc… Wear monochromatic uniforms. Fashion peeps love an “incognito” it bag…Like Celine Trio’s or anything by Sander (leather accessories…)…If you have some CDG leather that’s perfect, it’s exactly what you need to be “cool”. I’m almost at the point where I can’t even talk to some label obsessed fashion addict (used to be one)….Because those things don’t interest me anymore. It’s like talking to someone whose still on a boat you hopped off of ages ago.

If you wear anything by Wang make sure you’re prepared for that “sneer” from CDG and Celine sycophants.

Anyhow, I thought about it again, and I’m not embarrassed that I’m obsessed with this Forever 21 shirt, and skirt from Lululemon.

I know that women don’t need to dress for men. I really don’t. I wear things I like. But something strange happened with this outfit above…You see when I wear Jil Sander’s 3/4 length double breasted blazers with YSL cage shoes, guys don’t look at me. They don’t even TALK to me.

When I wore this out on three separate occasions (in a bar, in whole foods, and in the mall…) guys either tried to talk to me, or followed me somewhere. It’s true, I think… Men really do respond visually and the keypoint I’m trying to make is that men respond to color.

ALWAYS, always bring a leather jacket around with you. I never regret it in an Air Conditioned space.

“Never forced or too contrived…” From Winston Chesterfield’s book on the Duke “Style Icon: King Edward VIII

Diana Vreeland called him Mr. Chic Fatigue…

‘I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help of the woman I love.’ – Edward VIII (abdication speech)

“Not since his forebear King George IV in the 1820’s had a monarch lavished so much care and expense on his own personal appearance,” Ms. Taylor, the Sotheby’s specialist who has spent seven years preparing for this sale. ”He bought clothes of the finest quality but literally expected them to last a lifetime, which in fairness, many of them did.” (source)

You might struggle to figure out, what to wear in the mornings. I don’t. I keep it simple and very functional as I don’t have much time to fuss over complicated “looks”….In fact, if you laid out the same exact thing, denim and oxford, denim and oxford, all hung up, it would be perfect. Just like picking up the same dry cleaning set, day after day. Monday, Tuesday..Etc. The only problem is, people will think that you never do your laundry. That is the only dysfunction, with a uniform.

Comfortably sitting down, with two belts…One of them a harness (here) and another braided. You can get a tiered effect with these two belts as one creates a “empire” silhouette and the other “low waist”…

As stated previously upon my visit to Megu (which was not my first time, used to go there quite a bit…) one of the things you’ll notice on the menu is not a lack of Wagyu beef, salmon roe, toro whipped up in a frenzy, or a lack of Foie Gras even. What you will notice is one huge roll, monumental roll, that is missing.

In fact, at most sushi restaurants they don’t really bother too much with this roll. For example, they will leave out KEY ingredients like GOBO and shiso, and this roll is completely pointless without them.

In some restaurants they might even do the sacrilegious and add avocado to this roll.

There is one restaurant that gets this roll perfectly. It is JEWEL BAKO, and yes their salmon skins beat NOBU. But NOBU is still pretty damn good.

As I write this, I purposely explain to you that I made this roll exactly how it should be made. In fact I’ve been making this for years. Save for the rice (which will never be as perfect as an expert sushi handler, but can you blame me for that….?) it was not as deliriously delicious as it should be. There is something wrong with my tastebuds at the moment. They are out of order. But that’s just my problem. Not yours.

Salmon skin roll as I mentioned before is like the Sin Qua Non of sushi rolls and I feel as though it is the only thing I want to order, along with some nice octopus and slabs of toro. I don’t mind the occasional salmon roe with quail egg either but in the spirit of being frank this salmon skin roll is an addiction for me (usually)…It’s a roll that if looked up on instagram only has about 30-40 hashtags and not many people are into it. Except it’s like the best roll. It’s an acquired taste for sure. The haters will say, “She thinks she’s so different…”…Uhm, not really. Once you realize how superior this roll is, once you give your buds a chance to get used to it’s unique and aromatic flavor, once you realize how this floral shiso and peppery watercress work against that salty, fatty, buttery, chewy skin and how the snappy vinegary GOBO just finishes it off like the way a salad dressing should, you’ll realize what you’re really eating is a Technodubbed BLT. The gobo is not literally salad dressing, but it is a pickled vegetable that will have the same effect.

Believe me when I say the only reason MEGU doesn’t make this is because they don’t have enough customers that order it. That’s because there are a lot of people that don’t “get it”. It’s not because the actual roll is inferior. Believe me when I say it is just simple meals like this I crave over fancy, overworked modern cuisine..

I’m slowly adding new sections to the shop… One of my addictions are handbags. Above, a piece I worked on AGES ago, (nearly 1.5 years…) that I found on pure luck while re-organizing my work space. It’s a simple pencil case completely rendered in a rhinestone filter.

A funny story as I took this out on the night of a friend’s party. I nearly lost this purse on a cab ride home that I slept through. I don’t even remember how I made it to the cab but believe me when I say I jumped for joy the next morning when the clutch was magically on my desktop. Clutches are my weakness, as I tend to lose things that shouldn’t be lost (sunglasses, purses), and clutches are even riskier as they are things you have to hold in your hand. I do love the idea … it looks so nice, perched on top of a bar. This item is not available yet but will be soon.

Above and below, I feature pieces that are some of my old favorites. One of these is packed away to be shipped as a gift. My favorite at the moment is this grey perforated one. Subtle black dots on top of a faux suede.

Lastly I’ve created a new section, which is something I’m experimenting with. It’s a section of “curated” goods. It could be a random vintage sample I chose to reproduce, or anything else I see on the market that I think is worth reproducing. I don’t only consider myself a designer. In fact, I’m not sure I consider myself a designer at all. I have surely coded original material, but I consider myself a curator at best. There are two items available right now, and there will be more in the future. It will include everything from random trinkets to accessories.

I hate to say this, but Thanksgiving is one tradition that is so tiresome yet so necessary. I can’t handle not having a proper dinner, whether it is a steak night out with family or just a gathering at home. The entire year may end up feeling empty (at least in my world) if nothing happens. I can handle skipping Christmas. But Thanksgiving..No!

Because I like to update how it is usually served, I just experimented with some things, but I wanted to post this now. The thing is you always think November is so far away. It isn’t. It’s just around the corner. That and everyone likes to prepare at the last minute. But some of the things I’m showing here might be harder to do at the last minute, like new techniques you might want to learn.

These are modern updates you can add to a Thanksgiving dinner. This is a proposal for something lean, as you can see I’m completely skipping out on the full blown turkey… I love that sloppy plate with gravy and stuffing just sliding off the edge next to heaps of meat glistening with crisp skin and potatoes (not so lean), but maybe you switch it up from year to year….Yes this is a little fancier, my thing below..But actually this is just a start of a process.

I’m dying to do several other versions of Thanksgiving. Like on the cheap version ..

In this post I am using Turkey Breast instead of doing the entire turkey, with an aromatic brine… it’s alright, saves you the waste…but I agree a full turkey is nice as a symbol..

Instead of biscuits or side breads I’m doing a cheesy, herb filled waffle.